Actual Blog Content!

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Its been a while I’ve done any specific writing just for the blog here, as usually most of my efforts goes to the Morning Show podcast or actual production. So I gathered a bunch of questions and thought I’d go through them like one of the old FB questionaires we used to love filling out. Maybe answer some questions you might have about me lately, and whats new with me. Lets go for it!

What are you working on right now?

--Starslam webcomics. I’ve got 50 comic strips completely drawn, inked, colored and lettered. And I am penciling new ones sporatically. Anna Pocalypse 2, which is taking the longest. Some side things for the adult web stuff. Art and things for upcoming secret book projects and then Star Wars sketch cards. Also other sketch cards for Cult-Stuff sets and commissions. I’ve been VERY busy! Not a bad problem to have!

Whats the best part about your job?

--I think that as you put hard work into it, if you do your job good enough, then you start to see the results of it. More interest in you and your work, your work getting better, making new friends, learning new things. I like every part of that process. Starting out kind of sucks, but as you go on, you really find things snowball and it feels great! Once you tap that vein, you get in there, and it’s a great high!

Whats the worst part about your job?

--The loneliness. Wife sleeps alone and you feel guilty cause its your only time you can get stuff done, when the kids are asleep and you don’t have to go to the damn day job. Thanks to all that, its difficult to find time (and energy) to get the things done when you want to do them. I’ll get really pumped to get work done but then I cannot, because I’m needed to do this or that, or have to go to the day job. Then I say “I can’t wait to get free of this because I feel so jazzed to get art going right now! As soon as I get free, I’m gonna rock it!!” But then you get free finally, and you are so tired, it isn’t as strong as you wanted to be. So you do sleep instead!

How did you discover comics?

--I was casually aware of the characters thanks to the cartoons and movies as a kid. But I didn’t read comics until the Death of Superman storyline in the 90s. Then I got into all the image stuff. Then dropped out of reading them. But three years later, got back into it and started discovering all the DC Vertigo books and many indie books. That helped shaped the next stage of what I wanted to do in comics for myself.

What do you currently read?

---Walking Dead, Invincible, Batman, All New Xmen. I’m playing catch up with a bunch of other titles from the past that I have just missed along the way. I really have the desire to build my library up full of books that I should have read by now.

If you weren’t working in comics, what would you be doing?

--I originally wanted to do something in the film industry. Writing, directing or just production. Probably something in that. Making comics is like making a movie. But you got no budget and total control of every aspect of it. Its the catering that kills the lonely artist! We eat a lot when we’re alone and bored. That’s part of my problem.

Whats the best thing a fan has ever said to you?

--Once a few years ago, I gave a bunch of advice to a guy who wanted to do his own comics. I didn’t think much about it until the next year, I saw him again and he was set up with a table, selling his stuff. We’ve since become close friends. That to me was the largest compliment that I have ever got. That I lit a fire under someone to do this too. It was awesome!

Who is the biggest influence on your work?

---I take little things from all sorts of people from artists, writers, directors, musicians. Its hard to narrow down just one person who is my BIGGEST influence. I am an amalgham of those who inspire me to be better at what I do.

What single work are you the most proud of?

---I love all my books but the one that I feel I really nailed the story on was the last Pleasant Life book, “What we leave behind.” It ended the series perfectly. I’ve toyed with going back to do more cause I have stories left from that universe, but I love that ending so much and I am in a different place in life now, that I feel like I should leave it alone. We’ll see. Too much to get through first to ask myself that!

What is the best advice you ever received?

--One big art problem I have is just drawing what I THINK I see, instead of what I ACTUALLY see. Measuring it, feeling it out. An art professor from college taught me that. I’m still working on that.

Whats the strangest thing you have in your house?

--Nothing too weird I guess. Maybe any creative mess my kids make. I’m always discovering little destructive things they are doing after the fact. Like bites in my window blinds, or pen scribbles on my toilet seat lid. What the hell??

Who is someone you really admire?

--Right now I am really into people like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. They write what they want, how they want and they don’t care about the BS of it. They have to bow to no one or take a crap gig to pay the bills. And integrity to not take the cash on a thing they did if they didn’t want to do it. Fiercely private and full of “ART,” for lack of a better concept to call it. Just way into the movement of creation and doing something no one else is doing. They don’t talk about what they are doing. They just do it. If I could be like anyone, I’d be like them.

Own up to one of your guilty pleasures!

--I don’t really feel guilty about anything I am into.

If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?

--Someone stranded on a desert island, all alone. Just so I can enjoy the wind, ocean and the sand. No internet. No screaming. No stress. For one day. I’d like that.

Pick three things you cannot live without (other than water)?

--Family. Music. Paper/Ink pens. That’s all I need.

What makes you laugh?

--Stuff that is left field and not obvious. I hate set up jokes in movies. You see it coming and it builds and builds. And we’re meant to go “Oh! Here it comes!!” And its likely the prat fall from the trailer we’ve seen a hundred times. Its tired. I like quirky small characters and their moments. Or someone who looks so odd that they are “cool.” I love that.

What is your favorite place on Earth?

--Home with my family. All of us have the day off and enjoying each other’s company.  

What music are you listening to these days?

--I’ve been in a metal and swing music phase lately. Nice mix eh? But lately I’ve been rediscovering the essentials. Like The Doors, Queen, etc. I liked them before. Just not as closely dissected.

Last great TV show you’ve got into?

--I’m finally catching up on Curb Your Enthusiasm season 8. Other than that, I watch Breaking Bad, Toy Hunter, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who.

What would you like to see happen in comics in the next 12 months?

--Stop bitching about minor things and just get on with the gig. Seems every week there’s some great “controversy” and EVERYONE seems they have to chime in on it. I tire of that. Just shut up and make good work. Don’t care what the arguments are about. Quit being so protective of characters or events that you think you own. We’re all a part of this thing. Lets enjoy what we got and quit complaining. In the end, its just comics!

What is your dream project?

--Professionally, I'd like to do something STAR TREK related. Either write or draw an issue of the comic using the classic characters. Or publish a novel. Just something in the "official" vein and not "fan-fiction." But as for my stuff, I'm doing my dream projects. Doing exactly the stories and things I want to do. Although my big desire one day is to release an anthology trade full of short stories all drawn in different ways, genres and styles, all by me.